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These posts come from visits to reservations and urban-Indian communities. Look for my book, "American Apartheid: The Native American Struggle for Self-Determination and Inclusion," coming In spring 2018.

Missouri River view from the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe's South Dakota reservation

South Dakota is a state where a former attorney general called applying the Voting Rights Act to Native Americans an "absurdity" and advised the top elections official to ignore it. Where some counties prohibited tribal members from voting and holding non-tribal offices until the 1980s. Where counties may set up polling places far from reservations. Where a sheriff slouching in a precinct doorway in 2014 chilled Native voter turnout.

Where a local elections official dismissed barriers to the Native vote, saying, “A person has to make an effort.”

Yet, there is still plenty of work to do, said Brandon Sazue, chairman of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, whose reservation lies mid-state along the Missouri River. "We still don't get an equal vote. We are still fighting for our rights."

The math backs up Sazue's assertion: In 2018, Crow Creek will have some of the worst access in the state. Leading up to the primary election, tribal voters will have no polling place at all in their capital, Fort Thompson, during South Dakota's 46-day early-voting and late-registration period, though they will be able to cast a ballot on primary election day itself. Matters are only slightly better for the general election, when Crow Creek will have a polling place for 9 days out of the 46, in addition to election day.

Crow Creek's Sazue greets delegation from other Sioux tribes

So that's 11 days of access for Crow Creek tribal members, when off-reservation voters in South Dakota have 94 days. In this large rural state, the ability to register and vote over an extended period of time is popular and has increased voter turnout wherever it was provided.

According to Krebs, the counties decide what they want to offer and make their requests to the state's HAVA grant board. Efforts to contact the commissioners of Buffalo County, which overlaps Crow Creek and administers elections there, were rebuffed.

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I am a long-time writer on human rights and culture, with a focus on Native American issues. Recognition for my articles includes the Richard LaCourse Award for Investigative Reporting from the Native American Journalists Association, of which I am an associate (non-Native) member, and numerous other grants and awards from major journalism organizations. I am a contributing writer for publications covering politics and the arts. During two decades in magazines, I was an editor at national consumer magazines.